Quote of the Evening

"Love is helping people toward the greatest beauty and the highest value and the deepest satisfaction and the most lasting joy and the biggest reward and the most wonderful friendship and most overwhelming worship- love is helping people toward God. We do this by pointing to the greatness of God. And God does it by pointing to the greatness of God."

-John Piper "Let the Nations Be Glad

This very eloquently and succinctly sums up what I've been learning the true definition of love to be over the last year. Beholding in bigger and broader ways the amazing sovereign glory of all that God does.

For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things! Romans 11:36

Cold for Cold, Ache for Ache

I got the pleasure this week of catching my sons cold, which came with all the fun aches, sore throat, fatigue and itchy nose that one could want....

"Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them to present himself before the Lord. The Lord said to Satan, 'Where have you come from?'
Then Satan answered the Lord and said, 'From roaming about on the earth and walking around on it.' The Lord said to Satan, 'Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man fearing God and turning away from evil. And he still holds fast his integrity, although you incited Me against him to ruin him without cause.'
Satan answered the Lord and said, 'Skin for skin! Yes, all that a man has he will give for his life. However, put forth Your hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh; he will curse You to Your face.'
So the Lord said to Satan, ' Behold, he is in your power, only spare his life.'
Then Satan went out fromt he presence of the Lord and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his food to the crown of his head." Job 2:1-7 (all excerpts from the NASB, italics added for emphasis)

In my current state of desiring to live a life that conforms to 1 Corinthians 10:31, I really thought that I would be fasting and dealing with more the food side of understanding doing everything for His glory.

But in the last couple of weeks, He continues to remind me of the obvious frailty and decline of my 27 year old body. Between chronic minor ailments (vision loss, hearing loss, issues of the female system) and now this cold I'm wrestling with my flesh which would like to go the non-glorifying route. By that I mean with my achiness and fatigue I chose the path of least resistance by laying on the couch and bed and completely checking out of reality by movies and TV. I could have spent that time reveling in an expository sermon or reading the Word, but I justified it to myself by saying my brain couldn't focus well.

Really? That little cold took your focus afield?

Yes, yes it did and that brought home to me the reality that I have to continue to fight to revel in Him above all these minor worldly escapes. My goodness, if a cold can derail my brain in my late 20s, I'm in big trouble the older I get!!

"Then his wife said to him, 'Do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die!'
But he said to her, 'You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?' In all this, Job did not sin with his lips." Job 2:9-10

So, should I accept good and not the adversity (minor as it is) which will bring about more of His savoriness to me? May it never be to my life, and dear sister, may it never be in yours.

His Influence

My daughter came home from the neighbor's house yesterday upset because her friend had yelled at her. She felt as though the whole world hated her and I assured her it was going to be fine.

"I guess it's for God's glory somehow," she sniffled.

Did my kid just say that? I continue to be touched at how much He is influencing her thoughts. Despite my parenting faux pas and my hormonal swings, despite my rantings and bad examples, He continues to work all of it for His good.

Amazing.

Your Average Ho-Hum Day?

The first part of my day today was highly unusual and enjoyable. My friend Jess (whom I first met when we were babies in the church nursery) was in town with her hubby. They stayed at our house last night and we spent this morning catching up on life. I haven't seen her much since I moved here after high school. I love her steady and deep character and her sense of humor that reminds me so much of my husband.

The latter part of my day had an all-too-familiar hectic hour in it.

It's rent day.

We're short again.

This means I need to try and turn in the rent check in just before the office closes so that hopefully they won't try to cash it until Monday...at which time we'll (God willing) have it covered.

The added white knuckle aspect to driving the 20 minutes to the office today was that the car I was driving had an indecipherable amount of gas...all I could tell is that it was close to empty.

But, God's hand was on us and we made back into Golden before the low fuel light turned on.

That latter part...that's typical. So, I wait with hope to see how God displays Himself in providing for our needs this week.

What's Love Got To Do With It?

I'm a nerdy type person and LOVE to study...so funny that I haven't gone to college yet huh? Yeah, I think it's strange too, but He has His timing. (hopefully His answer won't be "Never" to me)

I've been listening to a lot of theological material recently ( sermons, lectures {go Reformed Theological Seminary Online!} and conversations with various church-related small groups) and I'm coming to the realization that defining your terms is VERY important.

Here's a couple examples of what I mean:

Food-kids think candy, anorexics shudder, addicts salivate, I think of my food favs

Sad- some think pathetic, pet lovers think dead kitten, refugees think of their dead family members and war-torn country

Love- kids think parents always saying "yes", teenagers think constant togetherness or maybe sex, males think sex, females think emotional needs met. 

That last word is one that I've been considering lately. We toss around the phrase "God's Love" often without defining what that means. Why do we do this??? Why do we give people something so profound as the infinite truth of His glorious love with no context and no Biblical definition. 

This was brought to my attention in the passage 1 John 4:7-21. I have always taken the word love in this passage to mean kindness to those around me. But, if you read the passage carefully the love he's talking about is only given to those who are believers (know God). So, it can't be kindness. 

If you look at verse 9 I believe it holds the answer of what Love means. In this passage love refers to God saving those He's written in the Book of Life from deserved death! That realization caused me read the whole passage in a new light. Whew! I would love to go on and on about how cool this passage is, but this post would get very rambly.

I fly home from Nicaragua tomorrow...I've been here visiting Dawn since Sunday. Ah, nothing like flying standby.

This was brought to my attention in my own reading of Scripture a couple of weeks ago. 1 John 4:7-8 is often quoted without context and I've often heard it implied that it means: 

Thoughts

Thus says the Lord of hosts, "Consider your ways! Go up to the mountains, bring wood and rebuild the temple, that I may be please with it and be glorified," says the Lord. "You look for much, but behold, it comes to little; when you bring it home, I blow it away. Why?" declares the Lord of hosts, "Because of My house which lies desolate, while each of you runs to his own house.
-Haggai 1:7-9 (great book of the Bible, BTW)

Then the Lord said, "Because this people draw near with their words and honor Me with their lip service, but they remove their hearts far from Me, and their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote. Therefore behold, I will once again deal marvelously with this people, wondrously marvelous; and the wisdom of their wise men will perish, and the discernment of their discerning men will be concealed."
-Isaiah 29:13-14 (also quoted partially in Matthew 15:8-9)

Home, A Day Late & a Couple Hundred Dollars Short

Sorry I haven't updated you on our travels...lots of laundry and catching up on life has kept me hopping. The title of this post sums up the end of our trip.

The flights into Denver were full, so we bid the team a fond goodbye in Atlanta and flew to my in-law's house in Nashville. This actually made for a very enjoyable detour and we made it home the next day with no incidence... hence, the day late part of the post.

And now, the part where God displays His infinite wisdom and ability to be over all. We mailed the rent check in hoping they wouldn't deposit it before we got home because we weren't even close to having enough to cover it. When we stopped at my in-laws I checked the account and they'd deposited it! Thanks be to the Author, the bank took the check!!! We owed the bank a small overdraw fee, but it was an answer to not getting evicted. God also provided all the money we needed for rent this week and to be back on the positive side of our bank balance.

"For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about yourl life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink: nor for your body as to what you will put on. Is not life more that food, and the body more than clothing? ... for your heavenly Father knows that you need all of these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." Matt. 6:25, 32b-33

Maybe the Militias Are on to Something

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me!! And I have been wretched! I spent the precious time I was given yesterday watching a depraved TV show...I'm not making a blanket statement about all TV shows mind you. Some are fine, but THIS one, was awful! Yet, it took me 2 hours to stop watching it. Shall I go on sinning so grace may increase??? May it never be!

Anyone who knows me, knows that I've never been all about the End Times or being really a doomsday type. But with all that's been going on, the end of America is something that has become a part of my thought process. What I find interesting in my discussion about this with other believers is their comment is usually, "Psh, America deserves it! Look what has happened to this great nation! It isn't a Christian nation anymore!"
While I agree with the sentiment, I'm concerned with the focus. If Christians are admitting that they've bought into the American dream as much as the next guy and SWANDERED what He's given us, then we missed something. I fully admit that in our marriage, our focus manhy times is on our own selfish gains. Here is this world of people starving physically and spiritually and He gave us the resources to help them. How much of my resources have I used for His glory? How much of your resources have you used for His glory??? How much of His resources have we dumped down the crapper for our own comfort?!

Thoughts?